Sci-fi thriller Tears in Rain takes replicants to a new level

Author Rosa Montero talks to Ars about her new future-noir thriller.

The year is 2109, and cloned humans—also known as replicants (or "reps")—are used for various jobs in The United States of Earth. Replicants look identical to humans except for their feline irises. Reps’ lives are short. They awake at age 25 and live for ten years, at which time disease strikes them down. Bruna Husky, a striking rep with close-cropped hair, incredible agility and strength, and tattoos to mark her status as a military replicant, discovers that other replicants have begun to attack. Bruna sets out to investigate the nature of these attacks and finds that the memories implanted in replicants' brains have been corrupted, causing the violent outbursts. In this oppressive environment, the ideas people build around their own memories are always in question.

Author Rosa Montero is a Spanish journalist who has written more than 26 books. Most of her works are not available in English, and Tears in Rain will be the first introduction for many readers. Montero talked to Ars from her home in Spain about the novel and its parallels to the real world as our biotechnologies and artificial intelligence efforts continue to progress.

"Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheepand Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner film form part of the substrate of my novel," Montero said. "I read the book twenty years ago but the story in Tears of Rain is all its own. I explore the issues regarding replicants and artificial intelligence, both of which are luminous concepts.”

Indeed, it’s misguided to think about Tears in Rain as belonging to the previous book and film. It’s probably more accurate to say that Rosa Montero’s novel places a mirror in front of the ideas of Phillip K. Dick and Ridley Scott—it develops new ideas and questions about identity and memory, and it further explores the ways in which the reps are discriminated against. Montero accomplishes this by creating a charismatic heroine in Bruna, who sets out to investigate the film-noir environment of her futuristic society. Unlike the replicants and androids from many other works of fiction, Bruna is full of drive and passion. She’s a woman of action. Bruna also provides a much-needed female perspective to the book's ideas about what it would mean to be a cloned human with memories that aren’t real.

A technological war of the future

Tears in Rain and Amazon Crossing

This is the rich and detailed world in the new science fiction thriller Tears in Rain by award-winning author Rosa Montero. Tears in Rain has become available in the United States for the first time thanks to Amazon Crossing, a publishing imprint (and data tool) from Amazon that takes customer data, reviews, and feedback to identify books that merit translation for wider global audiences. The novel releases on November 27. The book and the audio version, read by Mary Robinette Kowal, are now available for pre-order.

Author Rosa Montero

One of the most engrossing elements of Tears in Rain is the detailed history of the world. Every few chapters, Montero treats the reader to passages of historical information that provide satisfying detail about how a world full of replicant servants came to be. Midway through the 21st century, the exploration of Mars and Saturn led to the development of androids who could be forced to mine colonies. Replicants used in this way became a success and were eventually repurposed for jobs on Earth, such as deep-sea-fish farming. Over time, some of the reps rose against their owners and started what became the Rep War. Montero fills the book with details of the treaties, laws, and wars that have shaped the world. We also learn many of the ways in which the biology of the replicants has been manipulated. At the center of these events are the totalitarian corporations and governments that put a stranglehold on citizens.

"My novel denounces totalitarianism," Montero told Ars. "Corruption is inherent to human life, but it doesn’t mean it has to be accepted by people."

The malleability of memory fuels the ways in which corrupt governments oppress their citizens. Bruna’s own memories may not be what she thinks they are. "Memory is truly an imaginary construct when you think about it," Montero said. "Even the way you and I remember earlier events, like birthdays and love affairs—they change over a lifetime. We are editing them all the time. [In the book] authoritarian and totalitarian regimes control when they manipulate this archive of information, when they take hold of the narrative... as they do with the reps’ memories."

Despite creating a bleak outlook on the misuse of information and technology, Montero says she appreciates the ways in which technology connects people around the globe. "Social media and technology are part of the Internet, and the Internet is a wonderful tool. At the same time, the problems we see with aggressive discourse, bullying, and mob mentality are awful. But the Internet is in its infancy, and things will change. And just like any other tool or technology, the Internet’s potential for good or bad depends on how it’s utilized."

Montero, who has spent a lifetime as a journalist and author, has an insatiable energy and curiosity for life. In some ways, she sees her android heroine as a manifestation of herself. "Bruna just appeared to me one day. I had no control over who she was. She’s a favorite of mine, and she has such a fierce [desire] to live. I feel so close to her. Sure, she may drink more than I do, but in many ways, we are similar."

Promoted Comments

In regard to the people complaining that the setting is not original: How is this relevant to the quality of the book? In my opinion literature is(should be) judged according to how well it is implemented, not how clever the idea is.

The exception being crap genre fiction where the quality and style are the same boiler plate and so the only reason to read it is the world-building part. Personally I find wiki-articles to be more riveting than most genre fiction, though(hell, I'd rather read the WH40K wiki than any of the novels in that universe).

A Good Book(tm) generally has a totally bland and uninteresting setting and places in it an amazing story with amazing characters. It's not like The Road, or Moby Dick, or 100 Years of Solitude were great novels because of the world-building.

Would you refuse to read a non-SF, non-Fantasy, novel because "They totally copied their idea from reality?"

Fun Fact: Rutger Hauer's 'like tears in rain' speech was something he made up on the spot because he thought the script was too bland.

Yes, true! I think he said he'd been thinking about it a bit and told Ridley Scott he had an idea and could he try it out? One of the best bits of dialogue in the movie and gave the scene a lot more poignancy.

Good to see someone finally denounce totalitarianism. We've been far too soft on it.

You are sarcastic, but I think that for a Spanish person of Ms. Montero's age the denunciation of totalitarianism is not mere lip service.

If it's more than "corporations are teh evilz and enslave teh sheeples" kind of drivel, I'll be very surprised. Where are the heirs of Asimov and Heinlein?

Wow, thanks for the Robert A. Heinlein flashback! I grew up on Heinlein 30 years ago and loved the provocative novels. The novel posted here may be of some value in the histories included therein and worth a read for opinions' sake.

After two paragraphs, the new Battle Star Galactica series came to my mind, especially the spin-off Caprica. Exchange "Replicants" with "Cylons" and you have the same basic setting. It's what made BSG so fascinating, not only the dogfights, but the existentialism questions the Cylons and especially Zoey were confronted with.

With that in mind to compare against, Tears in Rain sounds intriguing! Because the underlying topics are prevailing and in information technology they are increasingly relevant and visible.

This is heresy. It borrows WAY to heavily on P.K. Dick's work. This is the kind of novel a lot of people have always had in their head but didn't dare write out of respect for the author's original work.

Without reading the actual book, it is hard to say. But it does sound suspiciously like Blade Runner fan fiction. Presumably the original publisher's and Amazon's lawyers did their due diligence and decided it was OK to print.

This is heresy. It borrows WAY to heavily on P.K. Dick's work. This is the kind of novel a lot of people have always had in their head but didn't dare write out of respect for the author's original work.

Works on artificial or enhanced humans and racial conflict date back to at least A E Van Vogt's Slan. Was Dick copying him?

This is heresy. It borrows WAY to heavily on P.K. Dick's work. This is the kind of novel a lot of people have always had in their head but didn't dare write out of respect for the author's original work.

Works on artificial or enhanced humans and racial conflict date back to at least A E Van Vogt's Slan. Was Dick copying him?

(Sarcasm aside, Dick was a big fan and defender of Van Vogt.)

I think the real legal issues would be with the movie Blade Runner, not PKD's story. Using the term "replicant" with the same meaning as was coined in the original film seems to be pushing fair use a bit, particularly for a commercial work. It's equivalent to writing a story based in a holodeck on a Federation starship. Warner Brothers might have a problem with an author making use of their Blade Runner intellectual property that way.

Quote:

I read the book twenty years ago but the story in Tears of Rain is all its own. I explore the issues regarding replicants and artificial intelligence, both of which are luminous concepts.

sounds, well, lawyer-ish, carefully chosen, coached. Particularly in the way it refers to the original story rather than the more problematic film.

Sounds less like "a nod" to Blade Runner and more "almost exactly the story from" Blade Runner. :\

That was my problem yes. I could have wrote a book that borrowed heavily from Blade Runner but this is almost outright theft. The legal issue wasn't even relevant. It's still a sacred cow from a cultural perspective. It's the kind of thing I would expect Dick fans would pirate just on principle. (Not paying for someone to steal from Dick, Scott or Fincher)

Quote:

Except it asks: "what if blade runners were replicants?" Woah dude, did I just ba-lowe your mind? pschew!

And then there's that. Let's take all the suspense out and just tell you "Deck is a rep." Wow. (mind totally blown)

Sounds like she just took the original work and removed all nuance and subtlety. Voila... and the book is done.

Even the title seems like it came right off Blade Runner. But I don't mind. Being able to expand on and develop on a previous author's work is great and an extension of the creative process. We would have had many works like these if not for excessive copyright laws.

Even the title seems like it came right off Blade Runner. But I don't mind. Being able to expand on and develop on a previous author's work is great and an extension of the creative process. We would have had many works like these if not for excessive copyright laws.

This is why we have many versions of War of the Worlds (including Independence Day), but almost no alternative tellings for anything since.

A lot of authors have looked at artificial people (azi, In Vitroes, etc.), but this does seem really close to Blade Runner. Since she explicitly mentions Blade Runner, she must be convinced she's legally in the clear... at least by EU law.

Edit: Obviously haven't read the new book... maybe the "real" Bruna took inspiration from the fictional Roy Batty. Copyright issues aside, the title would make perfect sense.

And for all the nastiness of the Franco regime, he kept Spain out of WW2, he kept it from going communist, and handed it back to the Spanish Royal family who reformed it as a parlimentary democracy.

I wouldn't refer to mass graves, still being found today, as 'nastiness'. Let's not get all misty eyed about a largely ignored and dark page of fairly recent European history.

Franco shouldn't be celebrated. He's just another evil bastard who was helped by the fact he wasn't a 'commie'. See also: US foreign policy to Latin America, 20th century.

I'm not pro-communism, nor am I anti-US. I am against blind ignorance. It might seem touchy to take issue with a flippant remark posted in comments, but to many musterion's comments are like making light of the holocaust.

Even the title seems like it came right off Blade Runner. But I don't mind. Being able to expand on and develop on a previous author's work is great and an extension of the creative process. We would have had many works like these if not for excessive copyright laws.

Agreed. Nirvana from 1997 with Lambert is another cyberpunk movie in the same vein, which though decidedly average, I would recommend to fans of the genre.

This is heresy. It borrows WAY to heavily on P.K. Dick's work. This is the kind of novel a lot of people have always had in their head but didn't dare write out of respect for the author's original work.

I disagree. As I wrote, this novel uses Dick and Scott's works as a reference point, but the world it builds is all its own. It's a novel with a lot of heart.

I just had an idea for a book... Replicants with limited life spans are acting up due to corruption in their implanted memories. In a nod to the Blade Runner movie, I will call my book Edge Runner. (To be honest, if anyone from Asylum Pictures is interested, I'm selling the script for cheap.)

Cesar Torres / Cesar is the Social Editor at Ars Technica. His areas of expertise are in online communities, human-computer interaction, usability, and e-reader technology. Cesar lives in New York City.